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Why is "are" used for the clubs and not "is" for singular? Ex. Juventus ARE very good, Real madrid ARE nice

Why can't say "is" because that is singular?

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    It makes a lot of difference whether you're a BrE or AmE speaker. Because Americans in general aren't very interested in Italian football teams, we can assume that most if not all of the 8 written instances of Juventus are* playing* came from Brits (or at least, Europeans who mainly learned British English). Not exactly a large enough sample size to be definitive, but it's worth noting there are only 2 instances of Juventus is* playing.* – FumbleFingers May 21 '18 at 12:36
  • @FumbleFingers Ey, Real Madrid is an Spanish team! Are (US)Americans interested in our teams? ;-P (I have used "is" because if both are correct I prefer "is") – RubioRic May 21 '18 at 12:59
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    @FumbleFingers I guess you are not in the States and don't watch European football teams on American TV. But I do. And I also hear Ray Hudson all the time. He pluralizes the verb but the US commentators use the singular. The interest in football (soccer) is growing and growing. And in the States, all the Spanish speakers watch it. But even my neighbor, who is a real Yank, and an American football nut even comments on big European games. – Lambie May 21 '18 at 13:12
  • @Lambie: I didn't mean to imply *no* Americans would follow European football (or indeed that no Americans ever use plural verb forms with football teams / companies / families / etc.). But broadly speaking it's a US/UK usage split, in that Brits do this far more often. And when I find more hits for Manchester City are* playing* than for Manchester City is* playing* in Google Books, I think it's safe to assume that's because mostly they're from BrE sources. And I did find half-a-dozen hits for where Chicago is* playing, but none at all for where Chicago are playing*. – FumbleFingers May 21 '18 at 13:28
  • AmE speakers use plural verbs for teams with countable nouns: The Chicago Cubs are a good team. Many teams are like that: Patriots, etc. However, an AmE speaker would not normally pluralize: New England Revolution is a team that, etc.. However, they, the team actually have, funnily enough: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/04/10/why-new-england-revolution-are-one-top-teams-mls-expected-goals And that may be because the writer is aping British usage, and that's fine. – Lambie May 21 '18 at 13:44
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    That duplicate target isn't really sufficient to answer the question on its own because it doesn't mention the AmE / BrE distinction. I'm sure we have a better duplicate target somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. –  May 30 '18 at 17:23
  • @snailboat♦: I don't think failure to explicitly mention the AmE / BrE distinction in the answer to the earlier question justifies keeping this one open. Apart from anything else, I note that nothing in *this* question (apart from potentially temporary comments) mentions that split. Besides which, the split (such as it is) is actually mentioned in a comment to the answer on the earlier question. If it's considered that important, someone should add it to that earlier answer (or post another there), rather than "forcing" it in here. – FumbleFingers Jun 29 '18 at 15:40

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In British English, the plural form(are) is used for a club because the club is made up of individuals, but in American English, the form used is based on the clubs name: ex. "the Yankees are good", "The patriots are annoying", "the cubs were world series winners in 2016", but "Real Madrid is Nice"(sorry, there aren't a lot of singular team names).

JustinCB
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    In American English, it's usually based on whether the name is singular or plural. Sports teams are usually plural (The Yankees are...) but not always (FC Dallas is...). With entertainment acts it varies much more often (The Beatles were...; Led Zeppelin Was...). That's all common usage, though, not necessarily correct. – ScottM Jun 29 '18 at 15:39
  • I changed it. I should've known better though because I'm an American myself. Think I was just remembering it wrong or not thinking too well. – JustinCB Jul 09 '18 at 13:26